At Sea – Ice Cruising Southern Svalbard

What an incredible day! I was woken up at 4am by the sound of sea ice scraping past the ship’s hull – we had arrived in the Arctic ice!!

Today was a day full of magnificent scenery, periodic moments of intense excitement (when we thought we had seen a bear), followed by periods of resignation (when we discovered it was just another piece of ‘dirty’ ice. Ah, this is the life of ice cruising for polar bears.

The Expedition Team took turns standing watch on the outer decks from 4:30am until late into the night (in fact one of them is still on watch as I write this log entry). While on watch, we wander all sides of the ship with binoculars glued to our eyes trying to spot anything moving on the ice.

We had the good fortune of catching glimpses of a Ringed seal pup, a couple of Bearded seals and a lot of Guillemots and Little Auks (seabirds). But unfortunately, no polar bears.

Standing lookout all day as well were our two local ‘bear guides’. These bear guides came onboard a couple of days ago and will remain with the ship for the entire Arctic season. They play a very important role – spotting polar bears from the ship and protecting us while ashore. These guides have the most incredibly sharp eyes – they can spot a white bear standing completely still on a white iceberg at a distance of over 1 mile.

At 1030am Monika Steinhof, our botanist, gave a lecture to the German-speaking guests about the special world of Algae, while I gave one of my favourite lectures entitled ‘Sea Monsters, Mermaids and Sea Serpents – fact or fiction’. During this lecture I review the history of some of the most famous sea monster tales and present a few options for what these ‘monsters’ might actually be. Is the Kraken actually a Colossal Squid???? No one will ever really know!

Our lectures were interrupted about halfway through by an announcement from the Bridge that we had entered some amazingly beautiful sea ice and the conditions were perfect for polar bear spotting – so we all bundled up in our parkas, scarves and hats and gathered on the outer deck with cameras and binoculars ready!

Although we never did see a polar bear, we had a lot of fun and earned our rosy cheeks. We all had to agree it was absolutely breathtaking – you just cannot describe the beauty of the contrast between the bright white (nearly glowing) floating ice and the dark grey of the sea. The mood was made even more beautiful by the fog that would roll in periodically – covering the area in a milky grey.

At the evening Recap & Briefing, Juan Restrepo, our geologist, explained how the winds are responsible for driving the ocean currents – and this is why the Gulf Stream comes so far north to the southwestern side of Spitsbergen, creating an ice-free ocean, whereas the southeastern side of the same island has lots of sea ice.

Christian Walter, our ethno-historian, was up next and gave a brief overall of how the early settlers in this area hunted the polar bears using a contraption with a rifle and bait whereby the polar bears, in their attempt to grab the bait, actually release the gun’s trigger and ‘shoot themselves’. Today, of course, all polar bears are protected.